Italian drummer, electro-acoustic musician and composer, Andrea Belfi, appears at OTO following on from last year's acclaimed Natura Morta LP on Miasmah. Belfi's projects and collaborations extend to diverse musical fields, from rock to electroacoustic experimentation, from avant-folk to radical improvisation, from audio/visual performance to sound installation.

“Belfi is a permeable performer. He doesn’t react to his surroundings but embodies them, incorporating them into his drumming, becoming a translucent presence through which the soundscape is refracted delicately. I can imagine his sticks fluttering deftly through the synthesiser mist, slipping in and out of visibility as soft organs and searing lens flare pass between him and I.” – ATTN:Magazine review of Natura Morta.

Andrea is a drummer and composer. He studied art in Milan before becoming involved in experimental music. He currently lives in Berlin and its projects include collaborations with Erik Skodvin, Stefano Pilia, Mike Watt, David Grubbs, BJNilsen, Simon James Phillips, Aidan Baker, Hobocombo.

”Natura Morta, "dead nature" or "still life". This album can be understood as a powerful study of the minute details of the art of electro-acoustic composition, as much as the Renaissance "nature morte" were a masterful display of the artist’s skill in portraying the glow of a ripe fruit, or capturing the light beaming on a vacant chair.

Six tracks, to be listened to as two long explorations in the art of variation and repetition. Layers of drums and percussions intertwine with synth waves making the portrait come to life, detail after detail, until a complex figure emerges from the white canvas. The constant, unsteady sounds, wavering noise, swirling cymbals, and distant feedback gently pull the listener into the picture, letting them enjoy every detail of this beautifully staged compositions.

Recorded at EMS studio, Stockholm, ZKM in Karlsruhe and at the legendary Funkhaus in Berlin, this album mixes influences from both Italian minimalism and the electro-acoustic contemporary scene. Somewhere in between the electronics of Keith Fullerton Whitman, the percussive repetitions of Jon Mueller, and the atmospheric sensibility of Pan-American.”

An Trinse is Northern Irish multi instrumentalist and artist Stephen McLaughlin. His music deals with the uneasy atmospheres and silences left in the Irish psyche in the aftermath of colonial and religious repression. It serves as an excavation and exorcism rite of this emotional stasis and asks whether its better to disavow these sentiments to exist day to day or confront them head on in search some kind of resolution.

“An Trinse's evocative soundscapes house smatterings of retro-sounding bubbly synths, but it doesn't come across as cosmic, ultimately feeling more like Tim Hecker's self-examining ambience or Kawabata Makoto's unfurling solo minimalism than the likes of a Klaus Schulze or an Eno. This EP comes very highly recommended for anybody in need of their drone fix, and An Trinse promises plenty more to come.” – The Quietus

“For over 10 years, I have only played unscripted/improvised music. I have experimented with the sound of the cello, limiting myself to the alive material at hand: vast and complicated layers within the instrument and myself; and to let this music evolve continuously in relationship with others. It relates to the process of uncovering an endless multiplicity of coexisting sense perspectives. And it deals with the energy that this gives rise to. For me, it is the most exciting place to play music from.”

Dimitra Lazaridou-Chatzigoga (Thessaloniki, Greece) is a musician and linguist based in London. She is active in experimental and improvised music since 2006. She plays the zither, a string instrument, and uses ebows and objects on its resonance box to produce sustained or granulated sounds. Her approach focuses on the interplay between spontaneity and elaborate techniques.

Recently, Mikroton released ‘Borough’ that documents the singular meeting of ‘The Holy Quintet’ with Johnny Chang, Jamie Drouin, Dominic Lash and David Ryan.

In the last few years she has been performing mainly in and around London, while most recent shows have been in Berlin. At the moment, she is exploring multiple ways to reroute her music.